SAN DIEGO (AP) — Every seat at Snapdragon Stadium appeared to be filled well before San Diego FC took the field for the first time on Saturday night. When the MLS expansion franchise finally kicked off its inaugural home match, the sellout crowd let loose with a roar decades in the making.

Major League Soccer's 30th franchise is officially in business in a city starved for elite professional sports — and particularly hungry for top-level soccer.

San Diego's first MLS team hosted St. Louis SC in its home debut before the biggest crowd in the history of its new stadium.

“It’s a very historic day," San Diego FC owner Mohamed Mansour told The Associated Press. “I’m so excited. It’s a big day for us, and I just hope we continue to do our best and work hard. It’s going to be a journey, but we’re winners by nature, and we will come up with a club that will make everybody happy in San Diego.”

The night was a dream come true for generations of San Diego soccer fans, who have watched while products of their extensive youth systems advanced to all levels of the international game. San Diego’s year-round sunshine and location on the border with Mexico make it a soccer haven, but after years of failed attempts to get a team in a top North American league, those fans have a well-organized, well-funded club to call their own.

San Diego's first MLS team made an immediate splash in its inaugural match last weekend by beating the LA Galaxy on the six-time MLS Cup champions' home field.

A week later, San Diego formally began play at the young arena built on the Mission Valley grounds once occupied by the oft-renamed former home of MLB's Padres and the NFL's Chargers. For MLS Commissioner Don Garber, the evening was another exciting milestone in his league's rampant expansion across the continent.

“I think this is a great sports town,” Garber said. “Soccer has a great history here, as many of you know. We worked hard for years and years to get an MLS team here. We went through some different iterations, and I thought a lot about that today. We tried to get control of the (stadium) site. And now sitting here today, being in Snapdragon and seeing what’s been happening with the community, how (everything) came together, this is a great outcome.”

Snapdragon turned out the lights for its pregame festivities, which included a fireworks show. Padres slugger Manny Machado, a founding partner in San Diego FC, took the field to loud cheers while carrying a large, glowing blue orb with the team crest.

The fans cheered every starter, but they shook the stadium for Hirving “Chucky” Lozano, the 29-year-old Mexican national team stalwart who signed with San Diego last year after a pro career in the Netherlands and Italy.

Lozano made a handful of daredevil runs in the opening minutes against St. Louis, epitomizing the up-tempo offensive game that San Diego hopes to play. But the festivities were slightly dampened when Lozano clutched his leg and left the game with an apparent injury in the 31st minute.

San Diego's second designated player is creative Danish winger Anders Dreyer, who scored both goals in San Diego's 2-0 victory over the Galaxy last week.

San Diego FC has arrived at a good time in a soccer-crazed city eager for a pro sports franchise to cheer in what had become a bit of a sports desert.

When the NFL's Chargers moved 90 miles north to Los Angeles in 2017, only the Padres were left among the continent's most popular pro sports for the San Diego area's 3.2 million people, although the NWSL's San Diego Wave also began play in 2022.

Every other U.S. metropolitan area with more than 2.7 million people had at least two teams in North America's major pro sports — except the Lakers-and-Dodgers-loving Riverside/San Bernardino area, which is considered a separate metro area from Los Angeles by demographers.

The well-to-do San Diego market was ripe for new sports, but its lack of a world-class indoor arena has quashed any ambitions for an NBA or NHL franchise. San Diego also didn't have a top-quality outdoor arena besides the Padres' Petco Park, which is why the Chargers left town.

“It’s an amazing opportunity, and I think MLS is right on the tip of the iceberg,” Mansour said.

The city's sports rebirth started when it tore down the former Jack Murphy Stadium in early 2021 and sold the land to San Diego State University, which built and opened Snapdragon Stadium in 2022.

Just a few weeks later, Mansour — the Egyptian-born British billionaire with a lifetime of passion for soccer — joined the Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation in a bid for an MLS franchise. The group paid a $500 million expansion fee to secure the league's 30th team in May 2023.

Less than two years later, a team led by Lozano and Dreyer is on the field and reawakening San Diego's sports passion.

“This is why we came,” Garber said. “Great soccer city, and the team lit it up in LA. We’re excited to see this game.”

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